BANFF – The YWCA Banff has launched a new fundraising campaign – Thriving Futures – to help support the critical programs and services it offers in the Bow Valley.
The Thriving Futures campaign aims to raise $500,000 for the Y to help it find long-term sustainability, as it moves through the COVID-19 pandemic focused on supporting the community with emergency response services.
CEO Connie MacDonald said as Alberta and the Bow Valley head into a second wave of the virus, residents are still dealing with social and economic consequences, and the need for community support will continue.
"We are looking ahead and trying to prepare for what is coming down the pipe at us, as well as deliver our programs and services day-to-day," MacDonald said. "Typically we would raise enough money through our hotel operations and fundraising to be able to pay for a lot of the main functions of our operations."
YWCA Banff operates as a social enterprise. It runs a hotel to generate revenues to pay for the programs and services it offers in the valley, along with fundraising events.
Its annual VineArt fundraiser, set for March 14 earlier this year, was cancelled due to COVID-19. The annual fall Walk-A-Mile in September was also cancelled and the YWCA ceased its hotel operations early in the pandemic to focus on community supports.
It set up dedicated isolation rooms for people in the community to safely quarantine if needed. With many valley residents living in co-housing situations, having dedicated spaces set up for those who didn't have appropriate isolation spaces was an important service for the Y to provide.
While there have been grant funds provided from various foundations throughout the crisis, they have been for dedicated to specific projects or endeavours, not the overall operations for the organization.
"We are continuing to operate all of our core programs," MacDonald said. "We made the choice to keep our hotel closed, because we know our services are needed more.
"But for the entire fiscal year, our hotel will be closed and typically that brings in 60 per cent of our total revenues."
The last eight to nine months have seen an increase in crisis calls; the need for domestic violence and sexual assault supports; rising unemployment and homelessness; and demand for mental health supports. These are all areas that the YWCA Banff delivers programming for the community.
“When Alberta announced lockdown measures in March, our team adapted quickly to address emerging community needs,” said Reave Macleod, YWCA Director of Programs and Services, in a press release.
“As more and more people are living with uncertainty, which is taking a toll on their well-being, mental health, and financial security, we anticipate that demand for our services will continue to rise and become more complex in the months and years ahead.”
MacDonald said the Thriving Futures campaign is an important step towards ensuring the YWCA Banff can continue to offer these much needed programs and supports.
"Thriving Futures is about really bringing it all together under one umbrella, because our needs this year are very clear," she said. "The demand now for our supports and programs are so high, we think we need to keep at it.
"But over the next year, we want to as much as possible, help replace some of those lost revenues."
Go to Ywcabanff.ca to find out more about the campaign, as well as the organization's programs and services offered.
